[SauronOfMordor]

While I used to believe in the theory that an armed populace was an effective guard against tyranny, I'm rethinking that position. It appears that modern tanks and APCs, helicopter gunships, precision weapons, body armor and small unit tactics have been quite successful in overcoming any armed resistance on the ground in Iraq. I would think that a disorganized rabble with hunting rifles would be even easier to overcome than the Iraqi armed forces.

There is a fundamental difference between an army operating on foreign soil, versus an army operating against its own people. In the former case, the civil service workers who send out the paychecks and purchase orders that keep things running are safely elsewhere, out of reach.

Notice how long it took to nail the "Beltway Snipers". Now visualize a thousand small teams engaged as serial killers of govt employees. How long before people stop coming to work? A govt without clerical workers, is a govt without supplies.

An army without ammo, fuel, food, and clothing is just a ragged mob

[Travis McGee]

118 is spot on.